At the University of Arizona Campus Agricultural Center, in the shadow of Tucson’s craggy Catalina Mountains, the traditionally planted Hopi cornfield is out of place. “This corn isn’t where it belongs,” says Michael Kotutwa Johnson, an assistant specialist in the School of Natural Resources & the Environment (SNRE) and member of the Hopi tribe farming his ancestral land 300 miles north. “The corn and I are on a mission.”  

The mission at hand is a three-year project funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research: “The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest.” The project involves low-cost irrigation trials, nutritional analysis of traditional crops, and the development of databases to capture the science of the Indigenous agricultural system.  

Hopi cornfields are traditionally farmed without irrigation with heritage seed that has evolved to produce with as little as 6-10 inches of precipitation per year. But that once-reliable minimal rainfall isn’t guaranteed anymore, says Kotutwa. Precipitation on the Hopi mesas has reached six inches in only three of the past ten years.  

“The Revitalization of Indigenous Crops in the Southwest” responds to a growing awareness that irrigation may be required for the Hopi and other dryland farmers’ way of life to continue.  

Following traditional practices, Kotutwa and his team of three students planted heirloom Hopi corn in bunches of 10-12 seeds in foot-deep holes spaced three meters apart along widely spaced rows. They divided the field into five distinct plots to test the plantings’ response to drip, flood, and subsurface irrigation, plus an unirrigated control plot and a plot for community education and experimentation.  

The team is assisted by SNRE associate professor Steve Smith, a specialist in plant adaptation, who is introducing them to tools such as the Arizona Meteorological Network and helping them set up experiments to enable effective data collection. 

Awaiting their yield from year one of the three-year project, the team has yet to reach many conclusions. Regardless, Kotutwa says he approaches changes to his tribe’s practices with extreme caution. “You have to consider all the consequences of introducing something new to a way of life that has evolved over hundreds of generations. What happens to us if it fails? What does it do to our beliefs and traditions? How might it make us dependent? What will it cost in the long term?”

“You have to consider all the consequences of introducing something new to a way of life that has evolved over hundreds of generations. What happens to us if it fails? What does it do to our beliefs and traditions? How might it make us dependent? What will it cost in the long term?” — Michael Kotutwa Johnson

Acknowledging that benefits for Indigenous communities are uncertain, Kotutwa points to the three young people weeding the research plot. “These students are what gives this meaning,” he says. “What we’re learning together makes it all worth it.”   

Kotutwa’s students—Emily Rockey, Greta Cotraccia, and Dennis Nichols—agree. “This is hard, physical work,” says Cotraccia, an environmental studies undergraduate. “It’s a mental challenge, too. We need Michael’s wisdom and all of our ideas to figure out how to go about it.”  

Cotraccia’s experience in small-scale, organic farming in upstate New York heightens her attention to the unique challenges of farming in desert environments. “Where I’m from, water is not something people talk about much,” she says. “Here, it dominates the conversation.” She is considering graduate study in urban planning to explore how small-scale initiatives can align with corporate sustainability goals. 

Dennis Nichols, an architecture major from Idaho, has worked on farms throughout his life. He was drawn to the grounding nature of agricultural research and, like Cotraccia, interested in its connections to the built environment. “Since sustainability starts on farms,” he says, “it’s logical that agriculture should inform our design and policies.” 

Emily Rockey, a graduate student in soil and water science, focuses on tracking stress indicators at the research site, including leaf discoloration, rolling, and necrosis. She also tracks the flowering stages of the plants and data from underground soil moisture sensors.  

Rockey says that, while science is nonessential to validating what Indigenous communities have known for generations, she believes scientific work such as theirs can bolster Indigenous policy engagement and bring broader recognition of the value inherent in traditional wisdom and practices.  

Rockey says that, while science is nonessential to validating what Indigenous communities have known for generations, she believes scientific work such as theirs can bolster Indigenous policy engagement and bring broader recognition of the value inherent in traditional wisdom and practices.  

In various ways throughout the morning, all four team members touched on the complexity of merging traditional and scientific systems in a research project. Translating ceremonial practice into scientific protocol requires skillful scientific and cultural negotiation, they explained, particularly when measuring success through metrics that cannot capture the scope of a practice’s cultural value.  

The team is nonetheless optimistic that researching traditional Hopi farming  will yield reciprocal benefits: a) for the broader community, insights into drought resilience, nutrient density, and sustainable ways to strengthen American health and food security; and b) for the Hopi, best practices to overcome increasingly severe seasons of drought and stronger arguments for Indigenous seed sovereignty and other rights essential for cultural preservation. 

Attacking the field’s sparse weeds with underutilized hoes, the team discusses the value of genetic sequencing, comparative trials, nutrient analysis, and why a crop’s heritage deserves reverence. They’re learning an extraordinary lesson: the value of nurturing identity, rootedness, and mission while building scientific knowledge and skill. 

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